It was billed as a familiarization tour for Rusty Areias, the new California director of Parks and Recreation, but he really didn’t need any familiarization.

He knew Malibu well from his years as an assemblyman, arriving in Sacramento in the same class as our now Gov. Gray Davis, and later as a member and chair of the California Coastal Commission, where Malibu agenda items are all too familiar.

He’s visiting all the California parks. But probably near the top of the lists, both for scenic beauty and for problems, are the state parks and properties here in Malibu.

During the tour, the group stood at the whale-watching station atop Bluffs Park and listened as a somewhat heated debate went on with the state and federal officials on one side and the city of Malibu on the other. The message from the state was very, very clear, delivered unanimously by Areias and the Coastal Commission contingent: Chair Sara Wan and Executive Director Peter Douglas. The message was, the state owns Bluffs Park and wants it back, and Malibu better find another location for its ballfields, sooner rather than later. City Councilwoman Carolyn Van Horn, City Manager Harry Peacock, the city lobbyist and a few citizens who had some other ideas argued the lack of alternatives, the absence of flat land, the environmental constraints, but seemingly to no avail. The state message stayed the same: It will work with Malibu, for a while, but it wants its park back because ballfields are not an appropriate use for state parks.

And then to punch up their message a bit, the State Parks crew piled us into a bus and took us to look at some of the potential flat-land sites in the Malibu Park and Trancas areas that could easily hold more ballfields.

I couldn’t quite figure who the tour was for. Was it for the benefit of Areias, so that the local parks people could make clear to him that Malibu’s reservations were not environmental but really political, or was it for the city? Sort of a warning that said, “Get your act together, because there are many alternatives to Bluffs Park and we know it.”

The next stop was the state park at the Point Dume headlands. If Bluffs Park was a point of contention between the city and the state, this was the equivalent of the 38th parallel. I could practically see the shells flying overhead. When we drove up to the headlands park, there were the “No Parking” signs alongside the road, and to show the city meant business, they had placed great, big boulders, which made it impossible to park a car close to the headlands park. To add insult to injury, not only had the city failed to get a permit from the Coastal Commission, claiming it didn’t have to, but it actually placed the boulders on state land, which turned Douglas apoplectic. There was no question in my mind that, given the OK, Douglas was prepared to immediately call in an air strike and deal with those boulders once and for all time.

Van Horn talked about traffic hazards, and emergency lanes, and the council’s decision to put in a shuttle bus up to the headlands as a substitute, but it was falling on deaf ears. Finally, Areias, apparently waiting until everyone had spent their spleen, took Van Horn off to the side for a private chat. Areias, reputed to be one of the capitol’s better deal makers, said, as they passed by me, “Carolyn, do you really want to go to war over this?” He was apparently referring to the previous deal for 20 or so parking spaces around the headlands park, about which the city had originally negotiated and then changed its mind.

After a while, we all piled back into the bus, and, although no one said it outright, it appeared that both sides might have compromised somewhat on the number of parking spaces and a deal was closer.

Finally, the good news of the day, announced earlier at the barbecue lunch at the Adamson House, was that the state had put the repair of the Malibu Pier out to bid, and had gotten back a low bid for the first phase, which is expected to be about $1 million. The state expects to sign contracts soon, work is to begin July 1, and the Stage One repair could be completed in a year or even less. After Stage One, the pier would be reopened, and people would once again be able to walk on the pier and fish. The full overhaul, including repair of the Alice’s Restaurant site and its reopening as a new restaurant, and including building repair on the seaward end, are still expected to take 2-1/2 years and would cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $4.5 million for the total job. The state, county and city are still talking about how they’re going to come up with that money, and, until they agree, that part of the repair remains on hold.

The Planning Commission Monday declined to throw its full support behind city staffers negotiating with Caltrans over federal money for an emergency communication system. In the process, it may have cost the city its own locally based emergency radio network.

For two years, city officials have been planning to build an emergency communication system that would keep Malibu residents informed in the event of a disaster, such as a major earthquake, when roads and power lines have collapsed, and Malibu is cut off from the outside world.

Emergency Services Coordinator Hap Holmwood had been envisioning a low-frequency AM radio transmitter, based at City Hall, that residents could tune into to hear vital information. Holmwood had been pinning hopes on federal funding for the project, which includes a single 50-foot antenna to be located inside the water treatment plant at Point Dume Mobile Home Park.

Last year, $50,000 from the federal budget was set aside for such a project. While the money was originally intended for use by the city, political tides have changed, and recently Caltrans appears to have appropriated the money for its own emergency communication system that would also cover Malibu. Holmwood is meeting with Caltrans representatives Friday in a final attempt to persuade the agency to relinquish the $50,000.

Without time to obtain a conditional use permit for the project, and hoping to show Caltrans Friday that the city’s political leadership backs the plan for the radio transmitter, Holmwood asked the Planning Commission to recommend an amendment to the zoning code to permit emergency communication systems in all parts of the city without requiring a conditional use permit.

“I need the positive attitude of the commission tonight so I can tell the people at Caltrans that we’re serious about this and we’re ready to move and it’s not up to them to jeopardize what we’ve already established,” said Holmwood.

But the commissioners chose not to grant Holmwood’s request — and consequently not make a strong show of political unity to Caltrans — even though, had the commission given Holmwood what he wanted, the City Council could easily have declined any such recommended changes to the zoning code. The council is scheduled to hear Holmwood’s latest dealings with Caltrans at its next meeting, but that will occur after Holmwood has already met with the agency.

Based on a suggestion by Commissioner Jo Ruggles, the commission unanimously recommended instead that the code be changed to require a conditional use permit for all emergency communication systems in any part of the city. An impassioned Ruggles, apparently believing that the commission is all that stands between the status quo and a city filled with emergency radio antennas, argued forcefully against Holmwood’s request.

“I’m sorry, but I can not support this as a permitted use in all zones in the city without review and without public hearings … I will not sandbag the residents of this community,” said Ruggles, who was reminded by newly appointed Chair Andrew Stern that the commission would only be making a recommendation to amend the code, rather than actually enacting any change.

Holmwood, speaking directly to Ruggles, said, “We have to make a strong showing on Friday that the city of Malibu and its leadership wants this antenna and intends to have it, or we’re not going to get [the money.]”

Holmwood’s appeal seemed to make an impression on both commissioner Ed Lipnick and Chair Stern.

“I’m willing to accept the emergency director’s statement that this is a time-critical issue and accept it as is,” said Lipnick. “We’re essentially over a barrel here.”

But after assurances from Commissioners Ruggles and Ken Kearsley, who was named as the new vice chair earlier in the meeting, that the City Council would grant Holmwood a conditional use permit for the Point Dume radio antenna on an emergency basis, the commission unanimously adopted Ruggles’ suggestion.

In the end, though, the commission’s half measure of support for Holmwood — that he can seek a conditional use permit — may not sufficiently convince Caltrans that the city’s political leaders back the project to make it worth relinquishing the $50,000.

Hoping to persuade the new director of the California Department of Parks and Recreation to back initiatives they have planned for the Malibu area, local state parks officials last week took the new director, Rusty Areias, on a tour of sites around town where changes are planned. An assortment of other government officials, including Mayor Pro Tem Carolyn Van Horn and Coastal Commission Chair Sara Wan, accompanied the tour and occasionally broke into testy exchanges at some of the sites.

Areias, the first Democratic-appointed director in 12 years, is a former assemblyman from Northern California and a former member of the Coastal Commission.

At the first stop on the tour, Malibu Lagoon, local state parks officials said they would like to expand the lagoon in order to accommodate additional water coming through Malibu Creek from the Tapia water treatment facility and from landscaping on increased inland development.

“The lagoon needs to be larger because there is more water in the watershed,” said state parks official Suzanne Goode. She suggested the state may acquire property in the Malibu Colony in order to widen the area of the lagoon.

The group then moved on to Rindge Dam, where state parks officials explained their interest in removing the dam, which they say threatens the habitat restoration of southern steelhead trout by blocking the trout’s access to spawning and rearing areas upstream.

Goode pitched the need for additional funding for a feasibility study that the department has planned for the dam.

Areias asked whether the dam had historical significance. Russ Guiney, Angeles superintendent for California State Parks, told him it is not an historical landmark, and he explained that Ron Rindge, for whose grandmother, May, the dam is named, is waging a personal campaign to save it.